Some animal crackers from the regions

There are a few contenders for regional newspaper headline of the week so far - and all of them involve animals.

Here is tomorrow's Northern Echo - with a headline editor Peter Barron tweeted that he never thought he would write. 

It comes hot on the heels of the Bridgwater Mercury's splash about a dog eating an Aston Martin. Both headlines are in the first person, involve animals and build vivid images in the readers' minds. Good work.

And for real detail and an element of the bizarre they don't come much better than the Liverpool Echo's 'One-eyed ferret on the loose in St Helens.' Marvellous.

Headline that sings is out of tune

The Sun has always enjoyed plundering the back catalogue of pop songs for its headlines. Over the years there have been some classics, as you can see below. But today's splash was just too cryptic, even for experienced tabloid watchers. The story about the Rev Paul Flowers, the former Co-op bank chairman, dabbling with drugs and rent boys was given the headline Sorted for he's and whizz. Geddit? Probably not. Its origins lie in a song, Sorted for E's & Wizz, by Pulp which made it to No 2 in 1995. Judging by the Twitter reaction, I am not alone in thinking it doesn't work as a headline though. He's as a euphemism for young males is stretching it and the apostrophe is wrong (it's just a plural). It is needed for the headline to have any chance of being read correctly though. And the song, albeit a hit from 18 years ago, is just too obscure for most readers. Hardly surprisingly, it was changed for the Monty Python Circus reunion in later editions. It was too clever by half. Song titles do often work as tabloid headlines though, as The Sun has long proved ...  

A memorable headline on George Michael's early sexual indiscretion

A neat tribute to The Sound of Music

Mary Poppins song provides the sub with a touch of brilliance

Barry Manilow is the inspiration for the Pope's visit to Brazil



Pink Floyd's tribute to the late Syd Barrett - Shine On You Crazy Diamond - was the source of this headline about banker Bob Diamond. Clever but, perhaps, verging on the obscure again.